The dropping of the travelmob name to become HomeAway Asia this month is part of a wider move by the Austin-based company to build a global brand and encourage global vacation rental travel. travelmob was started by two co-founders, Turochas Fuad and PK, who sold 63% of the business to HomeAway in July 2012, about a year after they founded the business.
Fuad has always maintained that their decision to sell at that time was due to a blend of conditions – the right offer at the right time, the right partner – that HomeAway would help them grow, and the competition – that Airbnb was scaling so fast and had such deep pockets that they needed the power of a global brand to help them scale across the region. A brand name change was probably inevitable given HomeAway’s plans to expand in the region and the appointment of Dan Lynn to head Asia Pacific earlier this year.
Dan Lynn: Increasing investment in customer service, localisation and brand marketing
Said Lynn, formerly from Expedia and Groupon, “HomeAway has often bought local businesses such as Stayz, Bookabach and TravelMob, because vacation rentals have historically been a very local – domestic – travel experience. However, as we’ve brought these local businesses together into a global business, we’ve found the trust that people have in our brands is encouraging global vacation rental travel.
“So we are moving to encourage that all. As part of that, we will often continue to use strong local brands, such as Stayz, but with an increasing reference to HomeAway, which is the global leader by far, in vacation rentals.
“Globally, and in Asia in particular as we move into 2016, we are significantly increasing our investment in customer service, localisation, and brand marketing, to encourage the consideration of this different type of travel experience – and the awesome space, privacy, convenience and value it offers.”
Asked if the move towards brand building was a way to counter the competition from Airbnb which has built a strong brand and community following in APAC, Lynn said, “The market continues to evolve and so will the competitive landscape. Our competitors range from the sharing economy players, local property managers to existing OTAs. Some brands are more prominent than others in this diverse market and we believe that is an opportunity for HomeAway to continue to grow.
“We believe that by far our biggest opportunity is to demonstrate to people who aren’t travelling – because they feel that traveling with a family is too expensive or inconvenient – or who are having unsatisfying stays in hotels, that vacation rentals are a great way for them to travel.
“We’ve started great with travelmob the last three years where we’re able to help educate the market and established a strong mindshare. HomeAway is making a larger investment into its brand awareness efforts across the globe and Asia is a significant part of that. The brand change will allow us to consolidate this effort as we continue to invest and focus in Asia.”
Fuad added, “The brand change is part of our plans to consolidate HomeAway’s efforts and investment into the Asia region. We believe this will allow us to better serve our Guests and Hosts – allowing them to list and book properties across the HomeAway network globally. HomeAway sites are now live on 13 countries across Asia and we will continue to launch new sites across this region in the near future.”
On how this will affect travelmob’s guests and hosts, he said, “A huge part of this brand change is to provide our customers an optimised experience on HomeAway. We do this by providing our hosts a wider reach for their listings and for our guest, a much larger option for vacation rentals across the globe.
“Besides having our hosts’ listings made available on HomeAway’s global sites (e.g. VRBO, Abritel, Fewo-Direkt), those listings will also be made available on HomeAway’s global partner sites in the near future (e.g. Expedia and Kayak). To our guests, they will now have access to global listings across the HomeAway network, beyond the APAC region that travelmob was initially focused on.
“With this brand change, there’s no impact to the existing booking or listing process. The commercial model and platform remains that of travelmob.” (More details of the brand change can be found here.)
T Fuad: “As any entrepreneur can imagine, it is never easy to let go of a brand that one started.”
Asked how he felt personally about the name change, Fuad said, “As any entrepreneur can imagine, it is never easy to let go of a brand that one started. Likewise for us, there was an emotional attachment but it quickly became a logical approach.
“Focusing on one brand in this region makes complete sense as it allows us to leverage the branding activities and the global networks HomeAway has established the last 10 years. Asia is an important region for HomeAway and we believe we’ve made a very good start so far. The brand change and what is in plan for Asia will not only speed up our efforts in Asia, but it will also benefit our users at all levels.
“More than 95% of the original team is still with the company. More than 50% of our interns do come back and join us full time once they graduated. The leadership team continues to grow and everyone is still with the company. The brand may have changed, but the soul and heart remains.”
Asked when he and his co-founder, PK, will be exiting the business, Fuad said, “I am fully committed to making sure HomeAway is successful in Asia.”
